Fast of the Tenth of Tevet
December 20 · Level 1 · #2125 of 2238
A minor Jewish fast that remembers the start of the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. That siege ended with the destruction of the First Temple.
How it is celebrated: observant Jews abstain from food and drink from dawn until nightfall, read special passages from the Torah, and say penitential prayers in the synagogue.
It is the only minor fast that can fall on a Friday. In Israel the Chief Rabbinate has also made it a general day of remembrance, when Kaddish is said for Holocaust victims whose date of death is unknown.